What 'Risky Behavior' Means to Professional Auto Racing

JOHN PHILLIPS

Feb 1, 2002

Maybe you noticed that the National Hot Rod Association and Winston cigarettes have parted company. It was a 27-year marriage that landed in court in 1998 and is now officially kaput. Winston didn't want a divorce, of course. It was forced to pack its bags, as stipulated in the 1998 Attorneys General Master Settlement Agreement, known rather less elegantly as the MSA.

As documents go, the MSA is a whopper: 43 single-spaced pages of covenants, codicils, and brain-draining legalese. And that's just the summary. It's not as interesting to read as, say, my Crown Vic's owner's manual. Until you stumble across the clause mandating that tobacco companies are limited to "one brand-name sponsorship per year." That's what forced Winston to abandon drag racing and stick with just one sport: NASCAR.

R.J. Reynolds (RJR) produces four major brands of cigarettes: Winston, Camel, Salem, and Doral. At first, the question was "Does the agreement limit RJR to just one sponsorship, or does it say that each brand is permitted a sponsorship?"

"It means one sports sponsorship per tobacco company," explains Denny Darnell, a media-relations manager for RJR. "We've had to give up a series of golf events, for instance, in order [for Winston] to sponsor NASCAR. But notice it's NASCAR we sponsor, not just stock-car racing. NASCAR owns a lot of things."

Indeed it does: It owns the Busch series, the Winston West series, the Craftsman Truck series, and the Grand American Road Racing Association that sanctions the 24 Hours of Daytona. Which raises a new question: If NASCAR purchased another sanctioning body - the NHRA, for example - would Winston's sponsorship then extend to drag racers, in addition to stock cars?

"That's an intriguing concept," says Darnell, "but it's not a question we're asking. We're not trying to cheat. We signed the MSA, and we'll abide by its spirit the best we know how."

Knowing how may be tricky, however. The MSA is overflowing with thorny "what-ifs." Here's one: Even as Winston sponsors NASCAR, is the brand simultaneously free to sponsor individual race cars within the Winston Cup? Yes, it is. Given RJR's resources, in fact, the company could sponsor 43 individual stock cars at 36 races every season. Funny thing is, Winston meanwhile is forbidden to sponsor even one car in any other series, as it did last year with Gary Scelzi's NHRA Top Fuel dragster.

There's more funny stuff in the MSA. There's a covenant that bans the use of cartoon characters - Joe Camel was the straw that severed the camel's spinal column here - yet nowhere is there a ban on using human characters made up out of whole cloth. The Marlboro Man, for instance. Try to conjure a character more cartoonishly fictional than the Marlboro Man - Pee-Wee Herman, perhaps?

Here's another poser: R.J. Reynolds is a corporate entity, not a cigarette brand. As such, it remains free to sponsor anything it wants. It could thus pay to create the "RJR Indy Racing League," for instance, or the "RJR CART Series." A far-fetched marketing ploy, you ask? No way. All the company has to do is print "MADE BY R.J. REYNOLDS" in bold type on each cigarette, and the connection in consumers' minds is complete.

In the MSA, there's a clause that prohibits a cigarette brand from sponsoring events "with a significant youth audience." Uh-oh. Should Humpy start checking IDs at the gate?

In the MSA, there's a clause that prohibits sponsorship of "team sports." Uh-oh. Last time Dale Jarrett won, he claimed it was because "my team got me out of the pits so quick."

In the MSA, there's a clause that prohibits sponsorship of events in which the "participants or contestants are underage." Uh-oh. When Tom Kendall and John Jones first started winning races in IMSA's Camel GTU and GTO series, both were in their teens.

If the cigarette companies are as rich as everyone says, why can't RJR simply buy NASCAR outright? You know, change the sanctioning body's name to, well, SALEM. Then build a dozen stadia on private property and sell "club memberships" so folks can come smoke en masse, as they would at a cigar bar. And, oh - while they're there? - watch a stock-car race.